Sunderland desperate to hold on to Sessegnon

The Benin ace has attracted attention from a number of clubs after his dazzling displays for the Black Cats last season but O'Neill wants him to stay put at the Stadium of Light.

"You can never tell what's going to happen over the summer and I don't want to be saying anything categorically at the start of it which will make us look foolish at the end of it," he told the Sunderland Echo.

"I don't want to say something now which will be thrown back at me next season with people saying: 'Well you said this, or you said that'.

"But there's no doubt Stephane Sessegnon is a player that we obviously want to keep and we'll be doing everything we can to do so.

"He adds something to our attack that no other player does and our priority is to improve ourselves as an attacking force next season.

"If you want to do that, you have to look at keeping your best attacking players and attracting others.

"Stephane has been making the right noises about being happy to stay at Sunderland and hopefully that will be the case."

About the author

Andrew Slevison is an avid sports fan, particularly of the world game. The Melbourne, Australia native, who has spent time living in London and travelling South America, takes a keen interest in the English Premier League and Major League Soccer and rates his best live footballing moment as the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil.